Meditation über die Bhagavad Gītā

Through the centuries, India’s greatest philosophers and spiritualists have praised the Bhagavad-gītā as the distilled essence of the eternal Vedic wisdom. In his Meditations on the Bhagavad-gītā, versified here, the renowned sixth-century philosopher Śaṅkara glorifies the Gītā and its divine author, Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Although universally celebrated as an impersonalist, here Śaṅkara reveals his devotion to the original personal form of God, Lord Śrī Kṛṣṇa.

Oṁ - O Bhagavad-gītā,
through Thy eighteen chapters
Thou showerest upon man
the immortal nectar
Of Advaita, the wisdom of the Absolute.
O blessed Gītā,
by Thee, Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself
enlightened Arjuna.
Afterward, the ancient sage Vyāsa
included Thee in the Mahābhārata.
O loving mother,
destroyer of man’s rebirth
into the darkness of this mortal world, upon Thee I meditate.

Salutations to thee, O Vyāsa.
Thou art of mighty intellect,
and thine eyes
are large as the petals
of the full-blown lotus.
It was thou
who brightened this lamp of wisdom,
filling it with the oil of the Mahābhārata.

I salute Thee, O Kṛṣṇa,
O Thou who art the refuge
of ocean-born Lakṣmī
And all who take refuge
at Thy lotus feet.
Thou art indeed
the wish-fulfilling tree
for Thy devotee.
Thy one hand holds a staff
for herding cows,
And thy other hand is raised showing jñāna-mudrā —
the thumb touching the tip
of Thy forefinger,
indicating divine knowledge.
Salutations to Thee, O Supreme Lord,
for Thou art the milker of the ambrosia of the Gītā.

The Upaniṣads
are as a herd of cows,
Lord Kṛṣṇa, son of a cowherd,
is their milker,
Arjuna is the calf,
the supreme nectar of the Gītā
is the milk,
and the wise man
of purified intellect
is the drinker.

Of that terrifying river
of the battlefield of Kurukṣetra
over which the Pāṇḍavas victoriously crossed,
Bhīṣma and Droṇa were as the high banks,
Jayadratha as the river’s water,
the King of Gāndhāra the blue water-lily, Śalya the shark, Kṛpa the current,
Karṇa the mighty waves,
Aśvatthāmā and Vikarṇa the dread alligators,
and Duryodhana the very whirlpool — but Thou, O Kṛṣṇa, wast the ferryman!

May the spotless lotus of the Mahābhārata
that grows on the waters
of the words of Parāśara's son, Vyāsa,
and of which the Bhagavad-gītā
is the irresistibly sweet fragrance
and its tales of heroes.
The full-blown petals
fully opened by the talk of Lord Hari,
Who destroys the sins
of Kali-yuga,
and on which daily light
the nectar-seeking souls,
as so many bees
swarming joyously —
may this lotus of the Mahābhārata bestow on us the highest good.

Salutations to that supreme shining one
whom the creator Brahmā, Varuṇa,
Indra, Rudra, Marut, and all divine beings
praise with hymns,
whose glories are sung
by the verses of the Vedas,
of whom the singers of Sāma sing
and of whose glories the Upaniṣads
proclaim in full choir,
whom the yogīs see
with their minds absorbed
in perfect meditation,
and of whom all the hosts
of gods and demons
know not the limitations.
To Him, the Supreme God, Kṛṣṇa, be all salutations — Him we salute! Him we salute! Him we salute!

Śrīpāda Śaṅkarācārya was an impersonalist from the materialistic point of view. But he never denied the spiritual form known as sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha [Bs. 5.1],
or the eternal, all-blissful form of knowledge that existed before the
material creation. When he spoke of Supreme Brahman as impersonal, he
meant that the Lord’s sac-cid-ānanda form was not to be confused with a material conception of personality. In the very beginning of his commentary on the Gītā, he maintains that Nārāyaṇa, the Supreme Lord, is transcendental to the
material creation. The Lord existed before the creation as the
transcendental personality, and He has nothing to do with material
personality. Lord Kṛṣṇa is the same Supreme Personality, and He has no
connection with a material body. He descends in His spiritual, eternal
form, but foolish people mistake His body to be like ours. Śaṅkara’s
preaching of impersonalism is especially meant for teaching foolish
persons who consider Kṛṣṇa to be an ordinary man composed of matter.

No one would care to read the Gītā if it had been spoken by a material man, and certainly Vyāsadeva would
not have bothered to incorporate it into the history of the Mahābhārata. According to the above verses, Mahābhārata is the history of the ancient world, and Vyāsadeva is the writer of this great epic. The Bhagavad-gītā is identical with Kṛṣṇa; and because Kṛṣṇa is the Absolute Supreme
Personality of Godhead, there is no difference between Kṛṣṇa and His
words. Therefore the Bhagavad-gītā is as worshipable as Lord Kṛṣṇa Himself, both being absolute. One who hears the Bhagavad-gītā “as is” actually hears the words directly from the lotus lips of the Lord. But unfortunate persons say that the Gītā is too antiquated for the modern man, who wants to find out God by speculation or meditation.

PURPORT VERSE 3:

Śrīpāda Śaṅkarācārya explicitly says, “You fools, just worship Govinda and that Bhagavad-gītā spoken by Nārāyaṇa Himself,” yet foolish people still conduct their
research work to find out Nārāyaṇa; consequently they are wretched, and
they waste their time for nothing. Nārāyaṇa is never wretched nor daridra; rather, He is worshiped by the goddess of fortune, Lakṣmī, as well as
by all living entities. Śaṅkara declared himself to be “Brahman,” but he
admits Nārāyaṇa, or Kṛṣṇa, to be the Supreme Personality who is beyond
the material creation. He offers his respects to Kṛṣṇa as the Supreme
Brahman, or Parabrahman, because He (Kṛṣṇa) is worshipable by everyone.
Only the fools and enemies of Kṛṣṇa, who cannot understand what the Bhagavad-gītā is (though they make commentaries on it), say, “It
is not the personal Kṛṣṇa to whom we have to surrender ourselves
utterly, but the unborn, beginningless Eternal who speaks through
Kṛṣṇa.” Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. Whereas Śaṅkara,
the greatest of the impersonalists, offers his due respects to Kṛṣṇa and
His book the Bhagavad-gītā, the foolish say that “we need not
surrender to the personal Kṛṣṇa.” Such unenlightened people do not know
that Kṛṣṇa is absolute and that there is no difference between His
inside and outside. The difference of inside and outside is experienced
in the dual, material world. In the absolute world there is no such
difference, because in the absolute everything is spiritual (sac-cid-ānanda),
and Nārāyaṇa, or Kṛṣṇa, belongs to the absolute world. In the absolute
world there is only the factual personality, and there is no distinction
between body and soul.

PURPORT VERSE 4:

Unless one understands spiritual variegatedness, one cannot understand the transcendental pastimes of the Lord. In the Brahma-saṁhitā it is said that Kṛṣṇa’s name, form, quality, pastimes, entourage, and paraphernalia are all ānanda-cinmaya-rasa—in
short, everything of His transcendental association is of the same
composition of spiritual bliss, knowledge, and eternity. There is no end
to His name, form, etc., unlike in the material world, where all things
have their end. As stated in the Bhagavad-gītā, only fools
deride Him; whereas it is Śaṅkara, the greatest impersonalist, who
worships Him, His cows, and His pastimes as the son of Vasudeva and
pleasure of Devakī.

PURPORT VERSE 5:

Śaṅkara
describes Him as the son of Vasudeva and Devakī. Does he mean thereby
that he is worshiping an ordinary, material man? He worships Kṛṣṇa
because he knows that Kṛṣṇa’s birth and activities are all supernatural.
As stated in the Bhagavad-gītā (4.9),
Kṛṣṇa’s birth and activities are mysterious and transcendental, and
therefore only the devotees of Kṛṣṇa can know them perfectly. Śaṅkara
was not such a fool that he would accept Kṛṣṇa as an ordinary man and at
the same time offer Him all devotional obeisances, knowing Him as the
son of Devakī and Vasudeva. According to the Bhagavad-gītā, only
by knowing the transcendental birth and activities of Kṛṣṇa can one
attain liberation by acquiring a spiritual form like Kṛṣṇa’s. There are
five different kinds of liberation. One who merges into the spiritual
auras of Kṛṣṇa, known as the impersonal Brahman effulgence, does not
fully develop his spiritual body. But one who fully develops his
spiritual existence becomes an associate of Nārāyaṇa or Kṛṣṇa in
different spiritual abodes. One who enters into the abode of Nārāyaṇa
develops a spiritual form exactly like Nārāyaṇa’s (four-handed), and one
who enters into the highest spiritual abode of Kṛṣṇa, known as Goloka
Vṛndāvana, develops a spiritual form of two hands like Kṛṣṇa’s. Śaṅkara,
as an incarnation of Lord Śiva, knows all these spiritual existences,
but he did not disclose them to his then Buddhist followers because it
was impossible for them to know about the spiritual world. Lord Buddha
preached that void is the ultimate goal, so how could his followers
understand spiritual variegatedness? Therefore Śaṅkara said, brahma satyaṁ jagan mithyā, or, material variegatedness is false but spiritual variegatedness is fact. In the Padma Purāṇa Lord Śiva has admitted that he had to preach the philosophy of māyā, or illusion, in the Kali-yuga as another edition of the “void”
philosophy of Buddha. He had to do this by the order of the Lord for
specific reasons. He disclosed his real mind, however, by recommending
that people worship Kṛṣṇa, for no one can be saved simply by mental
speculations composed of word jugglery and grammatical maneuvers.
Śaṅkara further instructs:

“You
intellectual fools, just worship Govinda, just worship Govinda, just
worship Govinda. Your grammatical knowledge and word jugglery will not
save you at the time of death.”

PURPORT VERSES 6, 7, AND 8:

Foolish
followers of foolish speculators cannot understand the meaning of
offering salutations to Lord Kṛṣṇa, the embodiment of bliss. Śaṅkara
himself offered his salutations to Lord Kṛṣṇa so that some of his
intelligent followers might understand the real fact by the example set
by their great master, Śaṅkara, the incarnation of Lord Śiva. But there
are many obstinate followers of Śaṅkara who refuse to offer their
salutations to Lord Kṛṣṇa and instead mislead innocent persons by
injecting materialism into the Bhagavad-gītā and confusing
innocent readers by their commentaries, and consequently the readers
never have the opportunity to become blessed by offering salutations to
Lord Kṛṣṇa, the cause of all causes. The greatest disservice to humanity
is to keep mankind in darkness about the science of Kṛṣṇa, or Kṛṣṇa
consciousness, by distorting the sense of the Gītā.

PURPORT VERSE 9:

By recitation of the ninth verse of his meditation, quoted from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, Śaṅkara has indicated that Lord Kṛṣṇa is worshipable by one and all,
including himself. He gives hints to materialists, impersonalists,
mental speculators, “void” philosophers, and all other candidates
subjected to the punishment of material miseries—just offer salutations
to Lord Kṛṣṇa, who is worshiped by Brahmā, Śiva, Varuṇa, Indra, and all
other demigods. He has not mentioned, however, the name of Viṣṇu,
because Viṣṇu is identical with Kṛṣṇa. The Vedas and the Upaniṣads are meant for understanding the process by which one can surrender unto Kṛṣṇa. The yogīs try to see Him (Kṛṣṇa) within themselves by meditation. In other words,
it is for all the demigods and demons who do not know where the
ultimate end is that Śaṅkara teaches, and he especially instructs the
demons and the fools to offer salutations to Kṛṣṇa and His words, the Bhagavad-gītā, by following in his footsteps. Only by such acts will the demons be
benefited, not by misleading their innocent followers by so-called
mental speculations or show-bottle meditations. Śaṅkara directly offers
salutations to Kṛṣṇa, as if to show the fools, who are searching after
light, that here ls light like the sun. But the fallen demons are
like owls that will not open their eyes on account of their fear of the
sunlight itself. These owls will never open their eyes to see the
sublime light of Kṛṣṇa and His words the Bhagavad-gītā. They will, however, comment on the Gītā with their closed owl-eyes to mislead their unfortunate readers and
followers. Śaṅkara, however, discloses the light to his less intelligent
followers and shows that the Bhagavad-gītā and Kṛṣṇa are the
only source of light. This is all to teach the sincere seekers of truth
to offer salutation to Lord Kṛṣṇa and thus surrender unto Him without
misgivings. That is the highest perfection of life, and that is the
highest teaching of Śaṅkara, the great learned scholar whose teachings
drove the voidist philosophy of Buddha out of India, the land of
knowledge. Oṁ tat sat.

Gītā Dyānam गीता द्यानम्

The Gītā Dhyānam (Sanskrit:गीता द्यानम्), also called the Gītā Dhyāna or the Dhyāna Ślokas, is a 9-Verse Sanskrit poem which is chanted before starting the study of Bhagavad-gītā. The purpose of the Dyānam Slokas is to invoke the Lord's grace to ward off the obtacles that may come, so that one can successfully complete the study of Bhagavad-gītā. In English, the meaning of Gītā Dhyānam can be translated literally as "meditation on the Gita," and it is also sometimes called the Invocation to the Gita

- Alternative English Translation of the Gītā Dhyānam Verses-

Oṁ - O Mother Bhagvadgita ! with which was Partha enlightened by Lord Narayana himself, which was composed and placed in the middle of Mahabharata by the ancient Sage Vyaasa, which showers the nectarine Advaita philosophy of Non-duality, which is glorious, which contains eighteen chapters, and which is an antidote to the the experience of change (Samsaara), I constantly meditate upon Thee. (Verse 1)

Salutations unto thee, O! Vyaasa, -- whose intellect is vast, whose eyes are as large as the petals of a full-blown lotus, by whom was lighted the lamp of wisdom, full of the Mahabharata – oil (essence). (Verse 2)

Salutations to Krishna – who holds a cane in one hand and Gyaanamudra (in the other) who is the Tree of fulfillment (Paarijaata) to all those who surrender unto Him, who has milked the nectar of Gita. (Verse 3)

All the Upanishads are the cows, the son of the cowherd is the milker, Partha is the calf, man of pure intellect is the enjoyer and the supreme nectar of Gita is the milk. (Verse 4)

I salute Lord Krishna -- the divine son of Vasudeva, the destroyer of Kamsa and Chanoora, the Supreme Bliss of Devaki, the Teacher of the Universe. (Verse 5)

The battle-river with Bhishma and Drona as its banks, with Jayadratha as its water, with King of Gandhara as the blue waterlily, with Shalya as the shark, Kripa as the current, Karna as the high waves with Ashwatthama and Vikarna as terrible crocodiles, Duryodhana as its whirlpool – was indeed crossed over by the Pandavas with Lord Krishna as the ferry-man. (Verse 6)

With Bhishma and Drona as it’s banks, Jayadratha as it’s water, Gandhara as blue water lily, Salya
as shark, Kripa as the speedy river current, Karna as it’s breakers, Ashwatthama and Vikarna
as frightful crocodiles and Duryodhana as it’s whirlpools, the river of battle was successfully crossed
by the Pandavas, only because their boatman was Keshava, Lord Krishna. (Verse 6)

May the spotless lotus of Mahabharata – which is born in the lake of the words of Paraashara’s son (Vyaasa), which is rich with the fragrance of the import of Gita, which has many narratives as its filaments, which is fully blossomed by the story of Lord Hari which joyously drunk day after day by the bees of good and pure men, which is the destroyer of the imperfections of Kali-yuga – bring about supreme good to us. (Verse 7)

Salutations to that God whom Brahma, Varuna, Indra, Rudra, and Marut praise with divine hymns, whom the singers of Saama Veda invoke by the Vedas with their parts, sections and Upanishads, whom the yogis see in perfect meditation with their concentrated minds, whose limit the devas and asuras do not know. (Verse 9)

Abandon all varieties of religion and just surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reaction. Do not fear. (Bhagvad-gītā Ch. 18- ślokā 66)

Wherever there is Kṛṣṇa, the master of all mystics, and wherever there is Arjuna, the supreme archer, there will also certainly be opulence, victory, extraordinary power, and morality. That is my opinion. (Bhagvad-gītā Ch. 18- ślokā 78)